In a celebratory interview with TV Source Magazine, Ms. Hall spoke with us and discussed her lengthy career and the evolution of the television landscape as she shared this historic event. 

Congratulations on reaching 5,000 episodes on Days of our Lives! What does this milestone mean to you, and how does it feel to have been a part of the show for so long? 

Somebody one day said I was coming up on 5000 and I went, “Ok, bye.” Of course in hindsight it’s extraordinary. There’s no such thing as 5000 shows.  I don’t even think there’s much of anything that’s close to that. So I’m, I’m very pleased to have been the person that got to make it to this landmark. It meant a life. It’s meant that I get to do a job that I love, that I get to work with people that I admire and respect.  The phone number doesn’t change. The parking space doesn’t change.  I love all that. I get to come home and have time with my family and know what my schedule is for the next three or four weeks. I know when my vacations are.  I mean it’s the best job there is.

You’ve played Marlena Evans for over 40 years. How has the character of Marlena evolved over the course of those 5,000 episodes?

Well, Marlena evolves as the country evolves.  We tell current and topical stories. For example; many, many years ago I did the first crib death, which had never been discussed on television. We had the first gay wedding. Our writers have always felt that being relevant was important. Ken Corday and Ron Carlavati continue this.  Because I think one thing the daytime does is it helps you see how somebody else handles it. It’s not watching the Kardashians. So if there was a death in the family everybody is shell shocked and horrified and heartbroken. Now what do they do? You know, Don and Marlena could not survive a crib death. Most couples can’t. The fact that we get to do a little bit of teaching along the way I think is awfully important.

What would you say is the key to the show’s longevity and continued success after so many years on the air? 

First of all, I think it’s being run by a family. Because the Corday’s are a family. When I came on Betty Corday was my boss and then Ken swept in and he took over at one point. So we’re family run you know so we have those values. Betty and even Ken are very attached to the story that we’re doing. What are we telling and what are we saying. 

We’ve got the wealthy family, we’ve got the not so wealthy family. The Brady family of whom I was apart. We knew how they lived and what was important and how they held together and the things that were incredibly important to them. Then we have the Horton family, which was the doctors, lawyers and you know, all those fancy folks and we got to see how they live and how they interacted.  We got to see a lot of contrast, which I think is important for people to see. 

We also get to be a family off camera as well. That means that when there is a tragedy, when there’s a joy, we’re such a safe place. A person coming to work gets to be handled anyway they want to be handled. We know each other really well. I don’t think a lot of us get together outside the studio but we don’t have to. I know what my makeup artist is going through,  I know what my hairdresser is going through.  I know what the stage manager is finding a challenge at the moment.  So those things I get to know and it makes a real difference working in such a positive environment. 

How have you seen the soap opera genre change over the course of your career, and where do you see it going in the future? 

I think we’ve stayed current with our storylines. Things that couldn’t have been told 10 or 20 years ago we were telling. I think our audience has an appetite for it and they appreciate our take on what’s going on. Where do I see it going? I don’t know where I see it going. I think I see it staying the same and getting better.

What message would you like to say to your fans?

What I want to say to the fans is, first of all, we do it as a family, and you are a part of that. Because we don’t do it without somebody watching. We don’t do it without somebody being moved by it and being inspired by it. and that’s important to us.  So that’s what keeps us on the air and especially to the people that followed us to Peacock. Thank you so very much, Thank you for all of that. It’s just been a real blessing, so thank you.

Thank you so much for speaking with us today and once again congratulations on this amazing achievement.

Peacock is now the new exclusive home of the fan-favorite drama series Days of our Lives. The 61-time Emmy Award-winning daytime drama began streaming daily ONLY on Peacock in September. In addition to new episodes streaming daily, the past season will also be available exclusively to Peacock Premium customers.

Peacock is also home to the Peacock’s Original limited drama series Days of our Lives: Beyond Salem and the holiday film Days of our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas.

The post Interview: Celebrating 5,000 Episodes with ‘Days of Our Lives’ Icon Deidre Hall! appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

12 years later, the Miami-born actress sits down with TV Source Magazine to discuss cementing her role as a series’ leading lady, ushering Gabi Hernandez-DiMera and the now streaming soap opera into the digital era on Peacock, celebrating her Hispanic heritage through her work and inspiring others to continue the story of Hispanic Heritage Month all year round.

TV Source: Congratulations, it’s been 12 years since debuting in the role of Gabi Hernandez on Days of our Lives! She’s been through a lot since you’ve last spoken with us. Tell us how the milestone feels and what that means to you as an actress, especially as an actress of color? 

Camila Banus: First of all, thank you so much.

Second of all, it means the world to me to continue this journey of representation on such an iconic show, like Days of our Lives. I love Gabi so much. 

She has been through so much but her essence and spirit always remains the same. There’s always aspects of her that involve her culture into storylines or into moments and that is so special to me that we get to portray that on camera for the fans to see.

What first inspired you to act – was it family, TV and movies? 

Yeah, I think coming from a family that struggled so much to come to America, my mom provided a really amazing environment for me to dream very wildly. As young as maybe three years old, I remember watching television and seeing people inside of the TV and telling her, “I wanna be in that TV box. Asking her how people get in there.” That’s just something that I had always dreamed of. 

My mom specifically always encouraged the arts for me and my sister because she came from a country where she couldn’t really explore a lot. She had limited resources and so she wanted us to learn and be part of as many creative things as we could. So at a very young age, she put us in dancing and even acting classes. I remember telling her that this is what I wanted to do. I didn’t want to stop. It just so happened that I was good at memorizing and so I kept getting jobs. It was this addicting feeling and it just made me feel so happy.  

It was something that happened because she left a really open space for me to be able to do these kinds of things. A lot of times kids’ parents – especially from where I come from growing up in Little Havana, Miami – don’t have time to take them to auditions or to make it work for them. So for her to be able to even make that happen was amazing.

How would you say the character of Gabi evolved over the course of this time?

Gabi has definitely evolved quite a lot. 

She started out as kind of a timid girl. She always had that fire inside of her. She just didn’t know how to let it all go and wasn’t comfortable with everybody around her. Gabi started off as this girl that was all about family that made every moment about it and that’s something that has transcended throughout her entire existence and evolved with her now as this ferocious passionate person. 

It ties in so much to my Latino culture, my Latino heritage. Because one of the biggest things that is instilled in my family is that connection together. Staying true to us, spending time together is what is important and that is truly what we love.

That’s great, and honestly ties into our next question for you. How do you stay connected with your culture and your family on the opposite coast?

Well, you know, thank goodness for technology. We connect as often as we can on Facetime and on the phone. I try to call, and vice versa, as much as we can and stay involved in each other’s lives. But I think the most important thing is that when we do see each other, we make the time committed to creating memories, making sure that we take it all in and enjoy that time. 

There are no phones anytime I’m with my family. I don’t ever see myself on the phone. We just are always talking and it is just such a nice, refreshing time with them. I think the time apart makes the time together so special.

You proudly represent your Cuban heritage and love to adlib in some Spanish in some of Gabi’s scenes on DAYS. Tell us one of your favorites and what that means to be able to add that personal touch to your character? 

I think one of my favorite moments is anytime she’s cooking, particularly one time when she was making huaraches. I think it was with Rafe.  It means to me that this is normal, it’s an everyday thing. This is just part of life, our tradition and our food. It’s so lovely to feel included and to feel represented in this way. 

We have to say one of our favorite moments too. Was Gabi calling Gwen a puta in the original script or an adlib? 

They have written that before, but I have also taken some liberties in getting to adlib some fun stuff. So that’s why it’s been so much fun for me to be her for so many years because she keeps me on my toes.

Gabi is in a love triangle with Stefan Dimera but also Li Shin, one of the few Asian-American characters in DAYS’ history. What does diversity in Salem mean to you, especially being the sole Latina in Salem? 

It’s just wonderful, especially with the character of Li Shin. The character development the show has done for that character has been fantastic. The way that he was placed in a very inconspicuous way a very long time ago.He was initially in business meetings and nothing was played out that would remotely point to playing us being together. It has so beautifully evolved to where we are now, and where we are going and I think that having him and also Wendy, is fantastic.

It’s an amazing thing for the show – for representation, for diversity and for how life really is. We are a melting pot of people and it’s wonderful to see that on our show.

Would you like to see the Hernandez family expand? 

Of course, anytime we have scenes with any family members – it doesn’t have to be all of them – just even having A Martinez, who plays our father come in for certain scenes, the fans blow up, they love it! They love to see our dynamic together. We just work so well together. 

It’s just a really fantastic set of really seasoned Latino actors and so it’s just fun when we get together. So I am super game and open to any scenes with more family – and new family.

Gabi has been portrayed as a hero, villain, a fashionista and everything in between. You’ve mentioned before that you like playing her bad side but now she’s a bit more in the middle. Where do you hope to see the multi-faceted Gabi end up next? What can you tease?

I said one time as a joke in an interview that she wouldn’t stop until world domination and I might just see that. Because she’s ready to go to the top and is willing to do whatever it takes and however she needs to get there. We know how passionate she can be and she’s moved a lot of that passion into her business side.

Fans are enjoying the series’ move to Peacock and you’ve been in two digital spin-offs so far. How has the move to Peacock been and what’s it like behind the scenes now? 

Yeah, it’s been amazing. I will have to be honest and tell you there’s really been no change. Our Executive Producer, Ken Corday, told us it’s the same show, same way we shoot, nothing’s gonna change and that’s exactly how it’s been.

We are the same exact show, we just have a new home and I think fans like it. I’ve been seeing a lot of memes of people saying like they’ve been waiting in the morning for an episode to come out and just being able to have all the episodes there to be able to watch however you want, whenever you want is fantastic. I think fans are loving it.

Behind the scenes, it’s awesome. We get to also create cool content and spin off shows now. it’s amazing to be able to explore the world of Salem. 

This past September 15th to October 15th, we celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month. What does Hispanic Heritage Month mean to you and how do you hope to continue the importance of this month throughout the year through your work?

Every year, as much as I can, I try to post amazing Hispanic people in history throughout the month. Because Hispanic Heritage Month to me represents a celebration of past, present and future Hispanic people. 

This is the time to put them up, celebrate and remember them and that’s what I try to do. I post poets, artists, singers, musicians and all types of people that I think have been doing or have done amazing things for our community to have transitioned us to where we are today. 

People that are doing things now to hopefully help us get to where we are tomorrow.

What do you hope people take away from Hispanic Heritage Month whether they’re Hispanic or not? 

Even if they take away learning any small thing about any Hispanic country, custom, maybe they meet somebody from a country that they’ve never heard of. Just learning and expanding your mind about all the different types of people that exist in this world and celebrating them. I think that is what is important about this month.

October also means Spooky Season, so we have to ask you about your upcoming slasher film, Bad Connection. What do fans have to look forward to from your character, Eva?

First of all, I love scary movies. And people are going to be seeing a really edgy side of me, I have never played a character like this.

Eva is a different type of bad girl. It’s just fun to play, she just says a lot of wild things. It’s a really great film and it was made with a lot of love. Everybody had fun, you can tell. Anybody that watches, they’re gonna have a blast.

The trailer for your upcoming Christmas movie, Sweet Navidad recently dropped and is full of surprises for soap fans. What was the experience like reuniting with former One Life to Live co-stars David Fumero and making her directorial debut, Brittany Underwood? 

This was very wholesome, definitely not the same as Bad Connection. But that’s also something that people haven’t seen of me, this very wholesome character. What I love most is that if you really look and think about it, there aren’t a lot of Latino-based stories about Christmas.This one is so special. It just shows so many wonderful traditions because so much of the holidays is food. The movie showcases such an amazing array of Puerto Rican desserts and dishes. It’s this feel-good movie that makes you wanna snuggle up with a blanket, a cupcake and enjoy. It’s so much fun.

That’s how it was to shoot the movie as well. Getting to see David and having Brittany as my director was the most amazing experience of my life. I have never felt so comfortable with a director. I could speak to her with no reservations because she’s my friend and so it was a wonderful experience. Having Mark Hapka, who I worked with on DAYS was amazing too. It is just such a fun group of people and it focuses on Latino stories, traditions, cultures, food and music, that’s why it’s a blast.

What kind of character or type of story do you want to play in the future, is there a superhero movie in your future? 

I would love that. Yeah, I definitely was going to say something action. I think there’s a space in there to show even more badassness. I think there’s still a moment in time for that and hopefully a production company out there needs a Latina for an action movie. Let me know, I’m your girl.

What advice would you give to a young Camila Banus just beginning her acting journey? 

It’s easier said than done, but I would definitely say, “Don’t be scared. You got this.” 

In the moment, it’s hard to recognize because you’re going through it but know we’ve got this.

Peacock is now the new exclusive home of the fan-favorite drama series Days of our Lives. The 61-time Emmy Award-winning daytime drama began streaming daily ONLY on Peacock in September. In addition to new episodes streaming daily, the past season will also be available exclusively to Peacock Premium customers.

Peacock is also home to the Peacock’s Original limited drama series Days of our Lives: Beyond Salem and the holiday film Days of our Lives: A Very Salem Christmas.

Camila Banus’ Christmas movie Sweet Navidad airs Thursday, November 17th at 8 PM on Lifetime.

The post <i>Evolution Through the Hourglass</i>— An Interview with ‘Days of our Lives’ star Camila Banus appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

With this transition, we had the amazing opportunity to sit down with the reigning Queen of Daytime, Deidre Hall. 

Spanning four decades (off and on), Deidre Hall has aired in a staggering 4,955 episodes. As Dr. Marlena Evans Black, she has been kidnapped 33 times, had 18 on-screen weddings, given birth to 6 children, been possessed by the devil twice, and continues to be one of Daytime’s most talked about characters. 

Without further ado, TVSource Magazine is pleased to present to you our discussion with the one and only, Deidre Hall.

TVSource: Hello, and thank you so much for taking this opportunity to speak with us today! We are huge fans of both you and the show. We are so honored that you took the time out of your busy schedule to speak with us today. 

Deidre Hall: Well, you are very kind to say that and thank you for helping us to get the word out!

How was the news of this transition to Peacock shared with the cast? And what are you and the rest of the cast most excited to do on this new platform? 

You know, there was so much rumbling about NBC and Peacock, and we [Days of our Lives] have been on Peacock for awhile and it’s been a very good home to us.

So I think we were all just sort of already on this road and just waiting to see what was going to happen. Then we were told that we were going to Peacock and it was like, “It’s great.”  Without hesitation. We’ve been there before. They’re very good to us and we perform well on Peacock. It’s where we did Beyond Salem Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 as well as the Christmas special, so it’s been terrific. 

Ron Carlivati, our head writer, has that lovely way of turning the crystal just a little bit to make it work for Peacock. A little bit of suspension of disbelief, a little bit of, “Oh, here’s something new. Let’s try this!” Ken Corday, our showrunner, signed off on everything and the two of them just made magic happen. So we’re thrilled to be back and home at Peacock. 

With that said, speaking for myself, I’m excited to see how it goes. And to ask,  “What are the numbers on Monday? How did we do? What do they say?”

What would you say to fans that are nervous about the show’s future as it leaves network television and begins its life on this new platform?

Well, it’s a really good question and the answer is that we’re all feeling that same low-level anxiety. It’s new. It’s different. Nobody likes change, especially after 57 years on the network. So it’s a learning curve and what I’ve been saying is if you can’t get it to work then ask your 8 year old neighbor next door. Because the kids are so savvy about streaming. Streaming is just the venue of the future. 

Days of Our Lives, well, we are the first to truly leap into it with both feet. So I think everybody is watching us a little carefully and we’re just hoping for the best results.

You can catch us in most markets from 6 a.m. on, all day long. With streaming, one of the best things is if you missed yesterday’s show because you were flying in from New York, guess what? It’s still on Peacock and you can go back and watch it. 

Speaking of New York! Recently, Days of Our Lives fan, Elizabeth Capobianco flew over 500 miles to help her grandmother set up Peacock to make sure she continues watching Jarlena’s adventures on DAYS!

SHUT UP! Good girl! We flew in late last night, so I haven’t been able to keep up with all of the fan reaction but you know what? What a great, passionate and caring granddaughter. Wow, just wow. 

I hope she stayed for a while because it doesn’t take that long to set up. Hopefully they grabbed lunch or something afterwards. 

Editor’s Note: We reached out to Ms. Capobianco who happily assured us, “Yes, I stayed all day. We went to lunch and made a day out of it. 

Not to worry, Deidre! Grandma got the Peacock and hasn’t stopped watching yet.” 

While some fans wish for their favorite couple to settle down and trade pleasantries, Jarlena fans have proudly proclaimed, “Shoot the bride” after that now famous wedding shooting and often cheer whenever they hear their favorite supercouple’s lives are in peril. 

What do you think it is about John and Marlena that created such a pleasant group of ride or die fans? 

I think that Jarlena fans — and I think that it’s so weird for me to call them that — so the John and Marlena fans are responding to not just the greatest love story of all time, and not just how these characters have fought their way through some very difficult times, but we’re all hungry for consistency right now. 

You know, we’re all hungry for that feeling of, “I want to turn on my TV and no surprises.” I want my favorite people doing my favorite thing, being happy, being safe, and reassuring me that the world is a safe place. Because for so many people, it is not a safe place right now. Between wars and pandemics. It’s been a hard couple of years and I think we have provided the audience with that adventure and consistency.

Oh, and we’re cute.

Days of Our Lives and in particular, your character of Marlena have been at the core of telling positive LGBTQ storylines with the relationship between her and her grandchildren (Will and Allie). 

What has that experience been like for you as an actress?

As an actress, I’m getting to work with kids that I love and adore and it’s just been so much fun to have screen time with them. As I’ve said before, we really are on the cutting edge of most things, for example, we did the first gay wedding which I got to preside over. We got a lot of letters after Will’s coming out story and from the wedding. We got a lot of positive feedback from the audience about how important these stories were to them and how they wished they had someone like Marlena in their lives and it was rather touching.

We were so delighted by the audience’s response to those stories because it meant that they weren’t just finding it entertaining or even provocative, they were deeply moved by it. And some to the point and it was psychologically important to them.  

Our writers and our whole team are very good about having their pulse on the country and seeing what’s going on, then addressing it.

Does it feel like soaps are slowly having their resurgence again with NBC and Peacock doubling down on support for DAYS?

We’ve lost a number of soaps over the years. We used to have over 13 soaps on the air and we’re down to 4. But what we are seeing now is that soaps and continuing drama is not a lost art form. 

I think people that love us are really dedicated to their shows, and I think the Days fans hands down are the most dedicated of any fans. As I said before, I’ll be so curious now to see what happens with Peacock and to see the numbers from this move. We have shot shows through Christmas, so we will be there. 

How did it feel to record the opening epigraph for the first season of Beyond Salem, especially since John and Marlena are filling the void left behind by Tom and Alice?

When I was asked to do it, I was deeply moved. I had spent 40 plus years hearing Macdonald Carey say the words. So when I was asked to do the opening for Beyond Salem, I was moved. 

I was terribly excited and hearing it on the air was peculiar. It was just peculiar, it was a new animal to me and I was thrilled to do it and would love to do it again.

When you and Drake Hogestyn started working together in 1986, did you ever imagine that John and Marlena would become one of Daytime’s most iconic supercouples?

First, thanks for saying it that way. 

You don’t think about that. You just think about the job in front of you. The day in front of you. There are so many people who are a part of getting a show on the air and it’s not just Drake and me. It’s hair and makeup, and wardrobe, and production, and direction, and sound, and lighting. It’s everybody doing 110% of their very best to get that show on the air. I love the show. 

So, does it surprise me that we are still on the show? No, it doesn’t because I love it and our audience loves it. But I’m glad we are one of the remaining few that are on and having fans come to watch us.

Watching old DAYS clips, it’s so frustrating watching Marlena falling off a building, ending up in a coma, getting kidnapped by the ISA and blown up a few times while John comes to her rescue as we’re cheering for him through the screen.

One of the best parts of DAYS is seeing how your character’s adventures unfold. So thank you for the hard work that you all do every day.

Well, first of all we have to get you medicated for that.

Second, DAYS provides all sorts of different types of entertainment ranging from a damsel in distress and or helping people through incredibly difficult times or welcoming a gay grandchild who is coming out. It’s all a part of what we do. I think that’s why we’re able to have such a wide demographic. There’s something for everybody in every show. There’s always a young love story, there’s always a jeopardy story, there’s always something else that’s surprising.

I watched soaps a million years ago. I watched one. Doesn’t matter what network it was because it wasn’t ours, and I didn’t mean to get hooked on it. I just was watching a show where there was a young girl pianist and I wonder if she’s going to get… and there. Just like that I was hooked. I wonder if she’s going to achieve whatever goal she was after.  So I understand it. I have a very deep understanding of not wanting to miss an episode.

The character of Marlena has been involved in some of Daytime’s most influential storylines, which of those countless storylines are you most proud of being a part of?

Days of Our Lives, with the character of Marlena, told the first crib death storyline. It was so amazing, and I gained such a deep respect for our team at that point. I thought the story was written so beautifully.

You know, Don Craig (Jed Allan) and Marlena’s child was going to die of crib death and our team was deeply concerned about how to announce that. Whether on the one hand, to promote it enormously and say “Days of Our Lives tells a tragedy, a crib death” or do we just air it with no preamble? What was decided in the moment was that when a woman comes in and finds that baby, she doesn’t get a warning. She walks into it. The decision was to let that happen to Marlena and I thought that was beyond wise and disturbing… but beyond wise. 

We got an enormous amount of calls at that point. There was such an outpouring of people who were trusting us with that part of their lives and hanging in there with us. 

I was just so impressed with our ability to do that for our audience.

Over the years, Marlena has welcomed many fresh faces into Salem, and as such, you have welcomed many actors into the soap fold. 

What would you say to someone that is aspiring to set foot onto an iconic soap opera like Days of Our Lives?

I think there’s a grave misconception that Daytime is a good training ground for actors. Every time I hear that, my reaction to it is always the same, “Are you kidding? I mean, seriously are you kidding? A training ground?”

These are some of the hardest working actors you will ever find. We work so hard every single day and everybody comes in utterly prepared and ready to do a day’s work. Not just the actors, but everyone from those behind the scenes including the set people that come in at 4 a.m., to those that are there at the end of the day taking it all down. All day long this job is being done, and the show is being churned out and it is not a training ground, folks. 

This is a place where you better arrive knowing what you’re doing. Otherwise, everybody has to pull you through it and they’re working at capacity already. 

I’m sounding so fierce… whew! 

Not at all! From a viewer’s perspective, we feel the same. 

Daytime’s production model is one of the most rigorous, and you can see the heavy lifting that the veterans are having to do to lift the scenes up sometimes. 

Having said that, my twin sister joined the show, Andrea Gengler, and she had come from working as a special education teacher. When our then head writer, Ann Marcus realized I had a twin, they flew her in and they put her on camera. We’ve never had real twins on a Daytime show, and it’s too difficult to have one person playing twins. So they brought her out of her special education contract and put her on camera. 

Watching her have to learn… oof. That learning curve of how to go from a special education teacher to an actor who is being given quite lengthy material was extraordinary.

So my suggestion — I don’t give advice — but my suggestion is if you want to do a soap opera, go do something else first. Go to a class, go take a college course, go do some stage work. Learn how to hit a mark, find a light and not overlap. 

What does overlapping mean? Don’t pour coffee over somebody else’s line. It’s a world of information and not a thing you want to learn at everybody else’s expense.

There have been numerous actors who have come on the scene with Days of Our Lives and with the urban myth that it’s a training ground, that has to be frustrating. 

With that said, with the nature of our production, we hire young actors who have never really done a three camera production before. At that point, all of us pull together and it turns into a workshop. So when we’re not doing our dialogue, it becomes, ”You need to step back 6 to 8 inches until you see my face, fully lit.” That kind of thing.

Or, “If you step downstage off your mark, you’re now blocking my camera,” the new actor doesn’t know that. So the veteran will take another step downstage and adjust.

It’s all things that we love to help young people learn and it makes them extraordinary performers.

Soap fans love a good wedding, and Marlena has had her fair share of them. Which of the many iconic weddings has been your favorite?

I think it might have been the first wedding with John [then Roman] in 1986. I’m never quite sure because there have been rather a few. It is when Marlena married John in the church. 

Lee Smith designed an extraordinary headpiece, we didn’t want a veil because it wasn’t quite appropriate to have one, but it had these amazing cut out sleeves with cut outs on the side with a lovely little train. I just adored it.

What can you tease for us that’s coming up for Marlena on Peacock?

We have shot through December, with all of those shows in the can. So what’s coming toward you is what was prepared originally to be on network television. But with that said, Marlena will always be consistent. She will always be empathic and available and dare I say in jeopardy from time to time, I’m sure. 

But nothing will really change for the moment. I think farther down the road, Ron Carlivati will figure out a way to relax those margins a bit. But for the moment, no surprise changes to the audience, just find us in a different place. That’s the only surprise.

Once again, thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us. It was a great honor and we are so appreciative!

Days of Our Lives streams exclusively on Peacock. 

Fans can sign up for Peacock at PeacockTV.com, or by clicking here. Throughout the month of September, new premium subscribers can get Peacock for $1.99/month for 12 months or for $19.99/year for one year. 

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly listed Greg Meng as Co-Executive Producer and has been updated.

The post A Peacock Preview – An Exclusive Interview With The Queen of ‘Days of Our Lives,’ Deidre Hall appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

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The newest TV Source Podcast episode is available for streaming. Share with us your thoughts on the week and reaction to the podcast in the comments below or on social media using #TVSPodcast!

Podcast 117 –

Hosts: Johnathon K., Coryon Gray, Ryan White and Ashley Dionne
Producer: Johnathon K. and Coryon Gray
Taped: May 19th, 2022

The post The TV Source Podcast | Episode 117 – The Cancellation of Peak TV? appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

TV Source Magazine learned that while his character has shifted from frontburner romantic hero to a more supporting role, Billy has enjoyed every step of the journey with DAYS. There’s a genuine love there for Chad and it shows.

As new stories kick up for the young Dimera heir, we hope you enjoy this time getting to know Billy as an actor and the passion he puts into his complicated character of Chad.

TVSource: You’re entering your 8th year off and on at DAYS. Congrats, does it feel like it’s been that long? What’s changed the most for you in those years?

It doesn’t feel like that long. Well, it does and it doesn’t. I’m a whole different person from when I started and I’ve also accomplished a lot in those eight years.

It feels like a lot when you’re in the day-to-day, but if you look at it as part of the timeline or a chapter, or a couple of chapters of the whole story then you go, “Wow, I did a lot in those eight years.” It’s a cool, great chunk of the whole journey.

TVSource: Did you ever feel pressured being a part of such a big supercouple on the show, arguably the first big supercouple on DAYS in the 2010s? Did you expect such popularity?

It’s pretty wild to think about. At the time. I didn’t know anything about soaps or super couples. When I was coming into the show, I remember Allison Sweeney had been leaving and James Scott was there for maybe two weeks, so I wasn’t even aware that super couples existed for a time. I don’t know if Chad and Abigail were intended to always be a super couple or if Kate Mansi and I just made something through the work we did.

I’ve always said that there’s kind of a pivotal period a few months in. There is a scene at Will’s apartment where Chad and Abigail both have a breakthrough. At the time, I had started to come into my own as an actor and then Kate and I found our rhythm in that scene too. That’s really kind of where it feels like the spark for Chad and Abigail hit.

And you also asked if I’d seen it coming and I don’t think so, I don’t think I was really prepared for it. At first it was exciting and cool, then your ego takes over because you forget that this is what the show is and how it goes. Even though we’re the first ones in a while, you’re like, “Wow, there’s just never been a couple like this before. We must be doing something special.” There were tons of super couples before us and now the show has Ben, Ciara and others, so it goes on. I just think it was a surprise for me and I think as time has gone on, I’m able to look back and see it was a really cool period.

I did feel the pressure probably in 2018 and I think it had been like three or four years at that point of us being a super couple. We were definitely overworked, in every storyline, and so on. You know, on a soap, happiness is where a couple goes to die and then your ego gets involved, you start to become less satisfied with how the story’s moving along. You feel like, “Well, how do we top what we did?” I also didn’t know how soaps work. I was like, “How do you keep doing the same kind of breakups?” I think even with Chad and Abigail now, I think that’s been the hardest thing. What do you do after that period of time? Unless you have a show that’s still super dedicated to making you guys the couple, but when you’re not, I feel like you just kind of linger in the background. They don’t really work as a super couple if you don’t have the writing to support.

I was lucky I didn’t only strike that kind of gold with one actor, I got it with two. Not an easy thing to do. But long story short, there was definitely a lot of pressure during that period but not so much anymore.

TVSource: Chabby fans are super dedicated and supportive of Chabby in all forms. We’re curious, does it ever feel like a different Chabby when working with Kate vs Marci?

The fans have been absolutely incredible. I think over the years, I think they probably got a little bit frustrated which I can kinda see any time I decide to check in on Twitter. I think the two Abigails, Kate Mansi and Marci Miller are very different and they wrote them differently. The relationship with Chad and Kate’s version of Abigail felt a little bit more young, fiery, passionate and they butted heads a little bit more, you know. Marci’s version of Abigail felt like two people who were really fluid. So you work differently with them. But you also worked the same, right? There were certain things that were through lines.

Since I came on, it was just Chad and Abigail, there was nothing else. That was Chad’s only objective but now you throw in kids. I think with Marci’s version of Abigail, we grew, we aged a little bit with the characters. I think that was a really interesting period. You get to see how a married couple keeps things sexy. I would dance a little bit more, I would be a little bit goofier and you’re more comfortable. I think the hardest part was when Kate came back, because now we’ve developed this thing. Then it became doing that thing with Kate but then Kate left again, then Marci came back and then I just realized I had to play Chad consistently. But they’re both so good.

Ultimately, you know, we don’t create the story. We just say what’s on the page. Sometimes you have to play against some of the writing to still have a connection because writing can kind of pull you apart. Relaying back to your first question, I think that is where the pressure comes when you’re playing part of a super couple. The vets do this really well and it is no matter what is in the scene, you always have to play drawn together. So sometimes you get a scene where it doesn’t make sense for the couple, but you have to play against that. Whether it’s a look or the emotion behind the scene, the vulnerability behind it, the sexual tension or whatever it is. You always have to find something, layer that in. And at a certain point, if they stop writing a lot for the characters, you have to continue finding that if you want the couple to survive.

I think that got harder and harder as it went on and we were leaving and coming. I think their interest in writing Chad and Abigail gets harder and harder because they can’t plan for story. So for me, I’m just going how do I keep this thing alive?

TVSource: Was it hard coming to the show as a recast? Do you feel like you’ve fully solidified your Chad Dimera?

I don’t know if I put a ton of pressure on it in the beginning about playing a recast. I think for me, where I was at that stage of my life, I think I was more concerned with how the guy who used to play Chad was like 6’6” and a supermodel. I think I felt very insecure that he was better looking. I didn’t think about the character much. I don’t know if I had that kind of intellect to think that far outside the box. I think I was just nervous and doing my best.

I think the character solidified itself over time because I got more comfortable with who I was and what I wanted to bring to the character. There’s certain things to me that are super Chad Dimera now. I know that Chad was friends with Sonny and Will before I came on. But the way that they’re friends now and the love that they have, despite it being a gay couple and a straight man was something I feel like I did.

As I’ve grown and gotten more comfortable with myself, I think Chad has as well. I think I’ve solidified that in Chad. That character that swings from goofy to romantic to hero, to not afraid to be ugly or weird in a scene or weak in a scene. I think Chad’s done a good job and that’s the credit to a lot of the writing too. Maybe I’m biased or I just don’t have a wide knowledge of soap characters, but I think the male soap trope or whatever the word is, usually the guy has gotta be masculine and always the hero. I think I’ve always played Chad like the opposite, and that it’s okay to be uglier or not be ripped.

The next guy who plays Chad is gonna have to be really sexy and be a little bit goofy too.

TVSource: How would you best sum up Chad Dimera in a few words?

I think Chad is – I don’t know, like me. I think he’s imperfect and I think he’s doing his best just to get himself and his family through the day. That’s kind of the most that any of us can do.

I also think Chad leads with his heart and is kind of just unapologetically himself. Flaws and all.

TVSource: Fans are dying to know, what’s it been like being folded back into the WilSon world? How’s it been getting to work with a new Sonny, Zach Tinker? Will there really be a throuple?

I love Freddie [Smith] and all but Zach [Tinker] brings a whole different thing to Sonny. They’re just different people. Zach and I have a ton of fun. He’s a total weirdo. But he also takes his job seriously. The three of us – Billy, Chandler and Zach – always have a blast working together. I wish we did it more often other than when they’re asking Chad to do weird things like try to get into bed with Leo.

Now I’ve seen a lot about the throuple. Here’s my take on that. As somebody who plays Chad, I think it would ruin the friendship, right? Not every gay man wants to try to sleep with a straight man or something. I think the idea that you have this friendship, that is what it is, this straight man, two gay best friends. If you mix that up I don’t know. I guess my question would be, does that ruin the meaning of the friendship over the years? Does it muddle that?

Was Chad showing affection all those years because he had a secret that he was attracted to them? As opposed to just letting it be pure in what it is and what I think that we built, which is just a friendship with people who are just humans and aren’t afraid to show love or chemistry or whatever exactly.

I think Chad would die for Will or Sonny and – he certainly is willing to dress in drag and put himself in precarious situations for them every time. But I take it as a compliment. The fact that people want that for them just goes to show the chemistry that we have as actors. But in my opinion, I think it ruins a really interesting friendship.

TVSource: What’s it been like being a part of the Dimera resurgence? Do you wish Joe Mascolo could have been here to see it?

I think it’s amazing. Joe [Mascolo] was the biggest advocate for the Dimera family. He loved it, same with Thaao [Penglis]. Thaao also doesn’t get enough credit for his work. He was on the show even before Joe was.

I think it’s just a credit to them that they left such a legacy that we can continue to branch off more Dimeras.

But what makes the Dimeras is how they work together. If you’re gonna have a large number of Dimeras, at some point you gotta have them all come together. You have to bring together whoever Brandon Barash is playing at the time. Bring in Theo. He was always one of my favorites too. You look back and they were best friends when they were younger. I would like to see that kind of mentorship continue to grow.

TVSource: You’re so big in the DAYS community on Twitter. What’s your favorite part about getting to connect so closely to fans? How do you block out the hate?

To be on a soap as an actor is not easy. Everybody has talked about it over the years. It’s like you’re almost within the [acting] industry forgotten about, and it’s hard to feel like you’re part of that community. So to have such a strong community of fans makes you feel really at home, like you do have a place and you’re not just doing some weird story that nobody cares about. An actor’s job is to tell stories that move people one way or another and that’s what we’re doing. So to have such a strong community in the fans and seeing the interaction on Twitter and social media is a really nice reminder that we’re not just some old show that’s considered outside its own industry.

It’s a cool genre of storytelling and the fans are amazing. As far as the hate, I used to feel really overwhelmed. This was probably back before 2018, I made a lot of life changes in 2018, and I think it affected me more back then. I mean, now I can’t remember the last time I saw something that actually affected me. Everybody has their own opinions and they’re entitled to that.

Some fans of Ben and Ciarra don’t like this, and some fans of Chad and Abby don’t like Broe, to me they should just enjoy the show and enjoy that there’s multiple couples that they get to root for. But I don’t know. I think I spend a little less time on social media now than I used to as well. So I think that probably helps. I kind ofI dip my toe in to say hello and then I dip it right back out before it shifts.

I think when you realize, maybe this is just age, that people who are saying mean things to begin with, what are they going through that day? You know, what do they have going on that they need to go on and tell somebody that they’re an asshole. I find more compassion for people who talk weird on Twitter then it upsets me. Instead of going “I hate them” or allowing it to make me feel bad. I kind of just go, “oh man, that person’s having a rough day. I hope it gets better.”

TVSource: You’re kind of the digital spin off king having starred in all three so far. What’s it been like exploring Chad outside of daytime’s Salem?

It started with Chad and Abby in Paris. That was the first idea that was like, “oh, let’s see what happens outside of here.” The success of it gave birth to a lot of what you’re seeing now. On a show like DAYS where you have so many characters and actors that have played different characters over the years, that’s a lot of story arcs and multiverses you can explore. It’s fascinating, you know?

I had a blast with Chad and Abby in Paris, I thought it was a really cool experience. Beyond Salem had a lot more money behind it and it has NBC behind it. I think it’s just cool to see. Hopefully it is a way to find some new viewers and ultimately anything that can extend the life of the show is super positive.

TVSource: On top of acting, you also write and produce! How important is it to you to keep creative in multiple ways?

I think it’s really important. I mean, we move so fast and the show is such a machine. I think sometimes it’s hard to feel super creative. I think it has its ups and downs. Sometimes you’re able to feel very creative and some days you just do your best to kind of get through the day. I don’t think you should make anything your “end all be all.” With that said, I haven’t been writing much as of late, I’ve done a couple really cool little side projects, My wife wrote and produced a short film and I was in that and I have a friend named Tipper Newton, who’s done a couple of short films and I’ll just go and do that and I can make it work on my time off.

But I’ve found something more creative and a different type of fulfillment now. We bought a house about a year ago and I have been landscaping and doing that kind of stuff, which has been satisfying. So not even acting or writing or any of that stuff, just remodeling the kitchen and planting things in the yard feels weirdly creative to me lately. Maybe again it’s just me getting older.

TVSource: What can you tease about what’s to come for Chad?

Well, new beginnings.

I don’t know what can be printed yet. But there’s already some rumors out there. I think it’s gonna be fun to try to flex some acting chops. I feel like I haven’t had any really big scenes in a while. I think Chad is going to have some dark days but hopefully some light at the end of the tunnel.

It is actually the first time in a long time that I have felt almost insecure as an actor because it’s been so long I almost had to be like, “how do I do this again?” Because I’d done it before with a certain storyline.

I felt like there were two sides, one on good days when I thought the scenes went well, it was like, “Y’all must have forgotten, but I still got it!” Because I’ve just haven’t done much in the last couple years. Then other days I was like,man, why do you guys have to give me stuff so hard?”

I think with where they’re hopefully going with Chad, I think it’ll be a necessary change of pace.

Days of our Lives airs weekdays on NBC. Episodes are also available on Peacock TV. 

The post ‘Days of our Lives’ Star Billy Flynn Opens Up About His Salem Journey, Romance and New Beginnings appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

TV Source Magazine got to sit down with the Scottish-born actor to learn about how he approaches playing the twisted but damaged Kiriakis black sheep, Xander’s tangled up love life and even more about his exciting thriller film, Green Rush and going full dark.

Our time was spent full of laughter but also insightful conversation that will hopefully enlighten you all on all things Xander but more importantly, inspire you to learn on the incomparable Paul Telfer as well.

TV Source: You’ve just made it to your seven year anniversary at Days of Our Lives, congratulations! Do you mind telling us a little bit about your journey with the show, starting as Kiriakis henchman, Damon and then becoming Xander Kiriakis? 

Yes, actually, it’s funny. They say that every 7 years, your cells regenerate. So every 7 years you’re like a different person. So I’m a whole different guy now from when I first got this job!

Well, it’s been fun looking back. I watched the big wedding episodes yesterday with my wife Carmen. I don’t often watch the show on the day that it airs, but if there’s enough interest in it then she’ll watch it. But I was like, “Okay, you need to watch four more episodes first so it can make sense.”

It really was crazy to see how – not necessarily different Xander is, he’s still kind of the same terrible person – but to see how different his position in the show, in the town and his perception from everybody else is now. 

It’s almost like my early experience on the show very much tracked like Xander’s, in the sense that, you know, I was dipping my toe in when I played Damon. I really, really enjoyed it. And I thought that this is actually perfect, you know. Just a small side character that can do like one or two episodes a month, get my health insurance, pay the rent, it’s all gonna be great. That’s what was going through my head. 

Then they go, “How about a whole new brand new character, where you come on contract and do it for real?” I said great. And all they told me about him was that he was a charming psychopath that could flip on a dime. He could be so lovely in one scene and in the next be a different person, vicious and awful. I said, “Got it, can do, sounds great.” 

TV Source: Charming psychopath? That’s definitely Xander, for sure. 

That is, for sure. Especially early on, they don’t warn you what they’re going to turn you into. Know what I mean? They also may not even really know at that point. I come on, and I’m charming and I’m kind of mean to Serena, then I’m even more charming to Nicole and then I’m even more mean to Serena. It just keeps building and building up until I’m full-on wrestling around with her and throwing her around her hotel room.

It never quite crosses that line of full on, horrible abuse but he’s definitely a bad guy. I thought, “I can thread this needle for a bit longer. I don’t think everybody’s going to hate me that much. And I guess Serena’s a new character too, maybe they won’t mind so much that I’m so horrible to her.” But then they started having me sticking Nicole and Eric in a pizza oven to try and burn them alive. I don’t really know if I could come back from all this!

I remember going to Arianne Zucker who took me under her wing early on and asked her what was I to do, there wasn’t any coming back from this for Xander. I know I’m only on a year contract, I don’t see how the character can continue at this point. She goes, “We’ve all done terrible things! I was married to Victor and tried to throw a toaster in his bathtub to kill him.” I felt okay and then two weeks later, they fired me. To be fair at the time, they brought in a new writing team and let go a whole bunch of people on the canvas at the time. It hurt and was painful but I thought, maybe it wasn’t really my fault and they told me they’d try to get me back. 

From then on, it really felt like how Xander vies for his position within the Kiriakis family and some kind of respect in Salem, I was also vying for my slot on the show as a recurring villain. Every time I came back, I got a little bit more to do as a useful player until they gave me another contract.

For now, it’s been the best and longest job I’ve ever had. It’s the most consistent institution I’ve been a part of outside of marriage.

TV Source: Xander’s always been the type of character striving for acceptance from his family, always the black sheep (whether deserved or not). How do you usually approach his character? How do you relate to him?

I think a lot of the charming psychopath stuff is mostly his attempt to cover and protect that he’s just a very vulnerable, sensitive, emotionally damaged little guy in a lot of ways. He’s very juvenile in a lot of his emotional reactions to things. Especially when he tries to be the big tough, international Man of Mystery there. “They seek him here, they seek him there”, you know? No one even knows where his accent’s from. 

He’s essentially what the fatherless child raised by a struggling single mother – who has no name. One day we will get a name at least!

He’s just someone who has always felt on the outside of everything and at a certain point, he made a little deal with himself that he wouldn’t mind kicking the windows in to get inside. Why should he have to jump through every legal, and moral hoop when everybody else seems to do what they want and not get judged to the same degree because of who their parents are or who their uncle is. 

Victor Kiriakis who is superficially respectable and legitimate but who Xander knows as a gangster being his closest male role model in his life. But he doesn’t have the resources or even mental resources to build himself into someone like Victor. He just does not have that same security. Victor is the most secure, solid and indomitable kind of guy but if you say the wrong thing to Xander, he’ll tear his hair out and run out of the room or lash out at somebody. 

That frustration between how he’d like to be or like to be perceived versus the kind of person he actually is, is the fun tension to play with Xander. 

TV Source: Did you ever imagine Xander would have his own romantic storylines after all the craziness he’s done? 

I have to say, I was surprised that the story we did was he immediately fell head over heels in love with Maggie Horton’s daughter. Not only that, but nobly stepping in to help raise his despised enemy, Eric Brady’s child. But oh, no, it’s not really his! 

It was not what I was expecting. I was expecting them to make him this ridiculous lothario. That had been my experience on the show. He’s supposed to be this hot guy who’s really confident with women and the women are often described as swooning over him. But he would never get any action. I used to start joking that he was like Pepe Le Pew, the old cartoon and then they literally made him start wearing patchouli. Now people are commenting on how he smells! I was like, “What have I done wrong that they don’t want me to be this romantic guy?” 

In a case of careful what you wish for, the process of semi-redeeming and turning Xander something a bit more vulnerable was to just put it through the absolute ringer. But again, it never crossed my mind. I always assumed that if I was to have a regular place on the show, it would essentially be as the black sheep of the Kiriakis family where I would slip into this Victor-lite mode. You know, potentially be his CEO or his business assistant by day and then by night, I’d be doing crimes for him that would help the business or would help his endeavors. We’d have little spots of that here and there but really that turned out to be more the thing of when I was a recurring villain. Once I was on the the show they wisely knew to turn Xander into his own thing.

I don’t think I’ve even seen John Aniston in over a year now. But I think it was really smart to break him off of the Kiriakis family and push him to the other side of the Salem world for a bit. I’ve also noticed that a lot of fans essentially watch their version of the show and fast forward the rest so if they hadn’t been interested in the Kirakis drama, then they might not even click into who you are until they see you with someone they actually like. So the more you can glob onto legacy characters, the more chance you have to get noticed by the fanbase who are understandably resistant to new characters. 

I think the shift towards Xander being his own person (even though he’s not very good at it), has done the character a lot of favors. If they do bring him back into the Kiriakis fold, he would come back as a different guy instead of the same stories of him vying for Victor’s affection. If he can build a life for himself, respect for himself, love and friendship then maybe he won’t be so needy and pathetic in the future. 

TVSource: Xander is currently caught up in an extremely complicated love triangle with Sarah Horton and Gwen Rizczech  – if it can be as simplified as that! How did you handle the fan reaction to losing such a popular couple to starting a new one? 

Paul: The main thing I always try to remember is that fan reaction is valid, right? They’re not getting paid to do it. Before I was a consistently working actor and I occasionally worked in restaurants and suc,  they would always tell those that a negative review will get shared a lot further than a positive review. If somebody has a bad meal at a restaurant, they’ll tell maybe 10 people. If somebody has a good meal restaurant, they’ll tell maybe two people. Just the way it goes. The most vocal are often negative. So once you accept that and don’t take it too personally – which is easy for me to say right now because I’ve been doing it for a while, but early on it isn’t that easy. Especially when you’re feeling secure, you’re not sure if you’re going to keep a job and how long it’s going to last, and you’re not really sure who even you’re trying to please. Is it the fans, the producers of the show, the writers? Eventually you realize that you’ve just got to forget all that and do your job and just enjoy it. 

TV Source: What was the shift from working primarily with Linsey Godfrey’s Sarah to Emily O’Brien’s Gwen like for you? 

So I felt in terms of the shift from Linsey to Emily, I was fortunate in the sense that Linsey is more experienced on soap operas than I am. So again, just like Ari had, she was able to… not so much to take me under her wing because I’ve been doing it for a little bit by that time, but I never really played a romance on the show. So to have somebody that I was a good friend, I could trust and could really talk things through about how to place things and what might be happening, what might not be happening. 

Sometimes it’s hard, you know. If you know you’re going to be or you assume you’re going to be on a show for years and you’re going to have all this story, you never really know quite where you are in the story. And it’s very rare that the show gives us hints or even explicit facts about what’s coming down the pipe. So you’re kind of like the first audience for it.

In a typical job, you would have a script that has a beginning, a middle and an end or you might have between 12 and 24 episodes of a season. This is different. It’s a constantly produced narrative that you’re a part of the ebb and flow of. You’re not the center of it but sometimes you are, sometimes you aren’t. So sometimes it can be really hard to know where you really are in the story. And that’s when it becomes really important to just trust your partner. So shifting to Emily. I know she was struggling with the whole notion that she was playing this villain and it was very hard to make her sympathetic because of the kind of villain she was. 

She’s not holding the town to ransom or any crazy schemes, it’s all this very manipulative, personal, emotional stuff that she’s doing. There’s children, miscarriages, sisters and fathers and it’s just kind of deeply rooted and real. I know that she struggled with how was she supposed to make her likable. I said, you don’t have to make her likable, you just have to make her not boring. That’s the main thing, the main achievement we’re looking for is to not bore people. As long as you don’t give up on Gwen and as long as you fight for her to have a reason to be doing things she’s doing, just watch and it will take a while, but the audience will slowly, but surely start to shift where they get that they’re supposed to hate you. The fact that they hate you isn’t like some weird accident, it’s the point. You’ll hit a kind of critical point where so much of the right kind of hate comes your way, that it’ll turn into love. I feel like it’s actually happening now. It feels like now is the shift.

TV Source: Xander and Sarah was a hugely popular couple with a lot of fan support behind it while his pairing with Gwen had a rougher start. As someone very in tune with and a part of social media, how do you handle the fan reactions to Xander’s stories? 

As awful as the things that Gwen’s done and though it’s slightly different because Emily’s a woman and women viewers react differently to female villains than to male villains – but still, it’s so similar to the Sarah/Xander relationship. Similar in the sense that Xander was lying to Sarah for so much of it. You know, and he was doing it for love, he was doing it for Victor, he was doing it for Maggie. But really ultimately he was still lying to Sarah to maintain a relationship and that’s exactly what Gwen was doing about Sarah. So yeah, Xander doesn’t really have a leg to stand on morally but like I said earlier, that doesn’t really matter in terms of his natural reaction to what happened. 

But in terms of the audience’s ability to sympathize with Gwen’s decision, even if it’s super evil and mean and awful, but as long as you can relate to it or some aspects of the audience can relate to it, you’re gold. In fact, the more they hate you, the more powerful that tension is between, “But yeah, I get why she did it… but she’s so bad!” 

To be able to  talk to Emily and say, “Look, I’ve been through this.” When I was first on the show and people would say nasty things, it got to me. The longer I was on, when they say nasty things, I’d smile like, “gotcha!”. At that point, very often they’re saying things about stuff that I shot up to six to nine months ago and I know I’m still on the show. So all their complaining that Xander shouldn’t be there is like, “Well, tough titties! I’m on the show!”

That’s what I always say to Emily. The fans are fighting yesterday’s war. You know that you’ve already moved on to these storylines and these things, just keep pushing. I’m really interested to see what happens next because she’s going to go through a whole, you know – Well, that’s Emily’s story to tell. Stay tuned. 

But yeah, I really like that it seems that there’s no dead ends to any of these relationships. I guess there’s always the possibility of things being rekindled and coming back. And I should be so lucky to be caught in a love triangle between Linsey Godfrey and Emily O’Brien. 

TV Source: Xander, Gwen, Leo and Craig’s double wedding was the talk of Twitter! How was it like filming such a big dramatic moment and did everyone hold it together during Leo’s entrance?

We shot it over two days. It really was one day was the Leo and Craig wedding and one day was for Xander and Gwen. We had all this heavy, dramatic, build-up about losing Sarah, and kind of saying goodbye to Maggie as well. I didn’t expect it to play as well as it did both when we shot it and when it aired. Xander doesn’t really have a reason to be friends with Maggie after he cut ties with little baby Sarah and also, he’s marrying this person everyone hates that’s done terrible things to people that other people care about so it’s going to be tricky to maintain the friendship. 

It was all kind of just emotionally heavy stuff and so to come in on Thursday for the wedding, having a little mini-reunion with Leo Stark was a lot of fun. Because what can Xander really say to Leo? There’s a lot of that sentiment amongst the fans – as there should be – on who is this guy to think his poo don’t stink and then here’s Leo to explain exactly how it really is, and it’s pretty great. 

But on a bigger television show or movie, that would take days to shoot but on DAYS we move so fast and cover things all at once, you really do sometimes get to watch the show. That was such a fun day! I hadn’t seen Leo’s costume for his entrance until he stepped out. So I got to react as myself and then as Xander which is always kind of delicious. 

Then I didn’t realize until it was happening that Emily O’Brien and Greg Rikaart have a longstanding friendship when they were a couple on another soap opera years ago! That was kind of mindblowing and lovely as well. Nadia Bjorlin, Eric Martsolf and Wally Kurth were absolutely killing me! They were doing all this business stringing along the ceremony. Just getting to do a bunch of explicit comedy stuff they don’t get to was just so much fun.

I only had maybe one line in that first episode but I still got paid! But then the next day was like, now here’s the real work. 

I kind of loved the two weddings in two days as fun as they were in different ways and as satisfying as they were for each audience to get to see this guy get his comeuppance and this girl get her comeuppance. No matter how different the two days were emotionally, they still had cohesive energy to them. 

That’s just really got to go to Greg, Emily and Marci Miller, honestly, because they had the lion’s share of the dialogue. And Jackie Cox too, Jackie looked amazing. To just march into the show — and we move fast, we don’t get takes and, you know, it’s just whatever you do is going to go on TV. So for her to come in and just nail it like that was so satisfying.

TV Source: There should be a ruined wedding support group in Salem. Soap fans are used to wedding fallouts but this one was definitely new, unique and fun to watch. We even had a full on drag queen on daytime TV across America! That was unheard of until now!

Paul: Sometimes I have to make my wife watch the show but she kept saying these episodes were really fun, she loved it. I was like, “This aired at 1 o’clock in the afternoon in America! It’s really cool to be a part of.” And then we go into the next day, for a more traditional soapy disaster wedding which was cool too. It felt like a real, great piece of work.

TV Source: You mentioned before that these relationships don’t have any dead ends even after such a big bust up at the wedding. Where do you think Xander’s heart truly lies? Where do you hope that Xander finds himself with love?

For me, for Paul, I’ve always maintained that he loves Gwen and he loves Sarah. He loves them in different ways and for different reasons because the love grew in very different circumstances. But Sarah was first, you know, We’ve never seen Xander be in love with anyone until her. He was kind of obsessed with Nicole but much of that was about the fact that she didn’t want him than it was that he was really into her. So much of it was when he first came to town and he had a crush on Nicole and she kind of messed him around a little bit, not knowing that he was crazy and violent. So what happened happened. But he’s not really that guy anymore. 

With Sarah, there was never any maliciousness or conniving aspect to how she treated him. She was always very upfront and he loves it when she’s like telling him off. She’s so little and she’s screaming up at him, and he finds it so adorable, you know. 

But the major difference between the two loves is that one is aspirational, right? Like as much as he loves Sarah the person, Sarah also represents a lot to him. She represents a different kind of life to the one that he had, one of legitimacy and security, she’s leveraged into a very important Salem family outside of his own. He’s already a very disrespected and alienated part of the Kiriakis family, but then here’s Sarah with the proper Horton thing too. Then also there’s the analog between Sarah/Xander and Maggie/Victor. To Xander, here’s a template for how it could be. Wouldn’t it be wonderful having that, being the patriarch and Sarah’s his Maggie and all of the things that we could do.

To me, there’s this hugely aspirational part of Xander’s love for Sarah even though it is genuine. Early on when he was courting her, that was clearly a big part of his motivation was to basically marry into a certain kind of decency and legitimacy, so maybe a rub off on him. He did not realize all the work he was going to have to do to actually become a little bit more decent and a little bit more respectable.

But with Gwen, there was no chasing. He tricked himself into thinking he’s just helping out his best mate’s daughter who’s having a bit of a hard time and yeah, she’s gorgeous, but he’s just doing it to be a buddy. He couldn’t let her get into trouble. Then as things go along, you just can’t help but notice that well, they both seem to be unexplained British people and very similar criminal reactions to things, an instinct to lie and sneak around, dark humor with difficult, murky family origins. There was just a lot of connection there. So as opposed to Xander chasing after somebody, this was a discovery of somebody right in front of him with whom he shared all of these similar traits. 

But I don’t want to have to walk between them because the Xander that can be with Sarah forever is a very different guy to the Xander that can be with Gwen forever. Andd it’s a soap opera! As long as he’s on the show and the show is on television, I don’t see him being with anybody forever. I’m sure he’ll end up getting drugged and forget who either of them are or his evil twin will come to town to seduce someone. Something will happen because we can’t just be happy, that’ll be dull. The last thing we want is to bore you guys, we’d rather torture you than bore you.

TV Source: What about throwing Leo into Xander’s dating pool?

Oh! That could work too. But they might need a bit more counseling but yeah, I could see it.

TV Source: What sort of new direction would you like to see Xander go in the main show or even on another DAYS digital spin-off series? 

What I would love to win back is some of the danger of the character. Outside of scaring Dr. Snyder to death by accident – I was really pushing for Xander to just murder him but they were like no, you can’t just rip his throat out in the middle of the Horton living room, Paul. It’s one in the afternoon on NBC.

But there’s a big unresolved thing for me and I would love for them to address it just because it would give me more time with these actors. But you know, Xander did shoot Marlena. And Marlena and John kind of took it in their stride. I know I was like a recurring villain when I did it and it’s just like a bit of a retcon at the time because I’d been off the show for a few months and they told me when I came back. It just feels like at a certain point, John should’ve tried to get revenge but they always have so much going on. I’ve never gotten to work with Deidre Hall much but I have with Drake Hogestyn, and he’s a lovely guy. 

I’ve always loved the idea of Xander’s mercenary, soldier for hire past and I think it’d be fun to pull him into the spy world like the ISA. I think it’d be kind of fun with his criminal connections from the past, it would be a way for him to be respectable on the surface. For instance, if he’s with Sarah, she’s not gonna let him go off and smuggle diamonds. But say John comes to him and asks for help to take down a diamond smuggling ring or something, and have Xander be slightly seduced to do the naughty thing while doing the good thing. Things like that would be fun. 

I’ve also always wanted a full on Kiriakis and Dimera family war. A united front of the Kiriakis family against the Dimera family for a couple months where we just fight. There’s so many fun actors on both sides that don’t really get to interact with each other. 

I would like while maintaining the semi-redeemed aspects of the character, for him to still indulge in his edge now and then. I think a simple way of doing that would be to allow him to get revenge on some other baddies. If he’s being presented as a semi-redeemed character, he shouldn’t be allowed torture good people but there’s no reason why he couldn’t get a little bit of revenge on Orpheus or Clyde. That’s the kind of thing that could get him into trouble! 

Oh, and one more thing! The storyline I’ve always wanted to do is – Remember the whole thing when Xander and Sarah got together and he gave her Dr. Rolff’s diary to save Will? I’ve always thought it’d be really cool if in order to cure somebody, Sarah used Rolff’s research and kind of gets pulled into the dark side of dark medicine and magic, like necromancy. Whatever is that Rolff does! Then it kind of darkens her a little bit, you know. As long as she thought she was doing it for like good, solid, soap medical reasons. 

But as long as they put the pages in front of me, I’ll keep saying them. I’m happy. 

TV Source: Other than Xander who got married on 4/20, you play another baddie known as Ticker in Green Rush, a thriller about an attack on a cannabis farm that you also co-wrote! Can you tell us a bit about the film, the writing process and what it was like going full villain, outside of daytime? 

It’s been a little bit tricky. You know, it’s hard to get financing for independent movies and that’s only getting harder and harder, especially for ones that aren’t horror films or have somebody famous in them that’s doing it as a favor to the filmmakers. My buddies and I had almost gotten multiple projects at different budget levels off the ground multiple times over the years and we just got to a point of frustration, especially our director Jared. He basically said let’s just do something. If we can just put something together that we can show people what we can do, whether it’s a short film or short. Just something done very high quality like something of a calling card. 

I was lucky enough that I was pretty busy – I don’t think I was on contract but I was busy on DAYS. It was right around the time I was first working with Leo. I think that was when we were putting it together. We had toyed with this idea of a Scottish gangster, a Scottish criminal – well, really a Scottish debt collector. Someone who reminded us of people from our neighborhoods growing up. These quite nasty debt collectors that fill in the gaps where poor people can’t get loans and go to these criminals then if they don’t pay back, they get hurt. Very nasty people do this for a living. 

We thought it would be nice to take this charming, funny and really vicious character and put him amongst typical American characters. We toyed with that for a while until our director’s friend took him up to his body’s place in Northern California to see his large legal weed farm. He was kind of blown away by how it all worked, not just how it looked. A big problem they have, the whole premise of the film is based on how  cannabis is illegal on a federal level but legal in California. Which is fine within the state. But in state to state commerce, if you move it in any direction without it being illegal. Plus, you can’t put the money that you earn from it into federally insured Banks. So there’s all these weed farms all over California and I guess, other states too that essentially have to bury all the money they’re making in a hole in the ground. There’s nowhere to put it.

So it seemed like a fun premise for a home invasion thriller that will be relatively inexpensive and just go for it. So we wrote the script very quickly, only because we did it as kind of team enterprise. And like I said, some of the elements had already been worked out in terms of characters and it was more about finding them a place to all meet. 

But I have to say the experience of it was the best thing I’ve done since I very first started as an actor. The pure experience of doing it. I’d had all this bottled-up. I get to let loose a lot as Xander, especially early on but this is still within the standards of what you can do on daytime. 

So to let rip and be this sexually ambiguous, equal opportunity creditor. Who was like, sleazing and threatening and menacing literally everybody gets his hands on. But doing it all with this little twinkle in his eye, where he was enjoying himself. If I can pull off this Xander flavored character in an R-rated project, it would be really cool. And I’m really proud of how it came out. He’s nasty, horrible, horrible, vicious character but I think he’s enjoyable. He’s an enjoyable, hateable villain.

TV Source: What can you tease about what to expect next for Xander? 

Well, you know, he’s absolutely devastated in the aftermath of yet another failed  April wedding.

He already did the big drunken spiral the first time that he lost Sarah. So now he gets to try to rebuild himself in the aftermath of this heartbreak. But now we’ve got tons of romance coming from… well, just cross your fingers and hope that Sarah starts to recover from what was apparently an unrecoverable brain injury. Maybe there is some hope that she’ll be more like her old self sooner, rather than later. 

As much as the wedding was some chickens coming home to roost for Gwen. You know, like the comeuppance for a lot of the things that she’d set in motion. It also was for Xander in the sense that what she did to him is very similar to what he did to Sarah. So there’s a certain amount of comeuppance there too. And so now, there is an outstanding issue between Xander and Sarah that has to be reconciled before they can get back together. So the fans can look forward to that being worked out in a slightly different way than they might expect. 

I remember when we got the script, Linsey was kind of mad about it but I wasn’t. I said you’ll see, we need to earn this. We can’t just run back into each other’s arms. 

So like I always say, expect it’ll be the usual mix of treats and torture.

Days of our Lives airs weekdays on NBC. Episodes are also available on Peacock TV.

The post ‘Days of Our Lives’ Star Paul Telfer Goes In Depth on Playing Salem’s Most Charming Psychopath appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

TV Source Magazine took time to get to know the rising actress who openly expresses her love for her craft, for the soap genre, and its fans – even if the feeling of having said fans is one she’s still getting used to. 

Time flew by getting to know the thoughtful newcomer but as we all confessed to being ramblers, we know there’ll be much more to talk about next time. Especially since Allie never has it very easy. 

TV SOURCE | Having been airing on the show since June 2020, what’s been your favorite part of working on DAYS? What was it like coming into an institution like a fifty-plus year old soap opera? 
Lindsay Arnold: I mean, I’d say my favorite part about working there is just the people that I’ve met. Because it really is like a family and everyone is so welcoming and we’re all really, really close. 

I moved out here from New York and I moved out here during a pandemic, so they’ve really become like my family out here in L.A.  I’ve met so many of my closest friends from DAYS. So that’s definitely been my favorite part, and I think it helped with joining such a long running show to having really friendly people working there because it was really nerve-wracking for the first couple of months. 

But having people like Deidre Hall, who’s this major person who’s been on it forever, being super welcoming and helping me with any questions I had. Or working with Ali Sweeney early on and her just being so supportive, and really reassuring me that my work was so good. It was just really lucky. 

I think in that sense, it made that transition a lot easier having such welcoming people.

TV SOURCE | What would you say your dream story is for Allie?
I would really love to see Allie…  I feel like what she wants is definitely to settle down with someone and I feel like, I just really want to do a wedding. I really want to get married on the show, mainly because I want to pick a wedding dress. I want to try out all the pretty dresses. 

So I would love for Allie to have a wedding moment. Just a little, you know. 

I was talking to Ali Sweeney, and she was telling me about all the times she’s been married on the show. That it’s just so much fun. She was  like, “I had so many pretty dresses. Let me show you!”  

I need my wedding moment.

TV SOURCE | We can’t even count the number of weddings that Sammy has had off the top of my head. That’s something I have Wikipedia for. 
Yeah, she told me the number and I thought she was kidding. She was like, “No, no, I’m serious. But they weren’t all successful! Some of them are just ceremonies that don’t usually end in an actual marriage.”

TV SOURCE | But luckily for Allie though, she has two viable options. 
That’s the thing. She has options. It’s not like she’s out here dry because she has a couple of different people. So I feel like it could be fun. I love that. I just think a big soap wedding is  one of the things, you know? Like when Rob [Scott Wilson] and Victoria [Konefal] had their wedding on the show  and everything blew up, after that I was like, “I want to be blown up at my wedding.” 

TV SOURCE | Who has been your favorite person to work with and who is the person you want to work with more?  
I always love working with Ali Sweeney. I really, always love working with her. When she’s on set because she’s not there all the time, but when she is, we always just have a little catch up and we really do have a sweet, mother-daughter dynamic in regular life too. She’s just a very safe, sweet person that I always love being around. 

Same with Ari Zucker. Honestly, Ari was probably my biggest support system when I first joined because almost all my scenes were with her and she walked me through any questions I had. I felt she held my hand through that process. I had most of my early emotional scenes with her.  

I think just being around her energy, which is so  just sweet and pure, made me feel safe enough to really get there in emotional scenes when I might have been too nervous if I was working with somebody else who I wasn’t as comfortable with.  Or maybe someone who wasn’t as just naturally supportive of everyone because she’s kind of the hype woman of everyone on the show. She’s just the best. 

I think those two women were really comforting for me, and I think someone that I would like to work with more… Well, I’m trying to think. I always say I feel like I got lucky because I really worked with everybody. 

But oh, you know! I haven’t really worked with Paul [Telfer] that much, and I haven’t worked with Linsey Godfrey that much. Our paths have just never really intersected that often. It would be really fun to work with one of them. 

TV SOURCE | What was it like being brought into a storyline so iconic like The Possession? Now that it’s carrying over to Allie’s generation with Johnny’s possession, what do you hope fans take out of this new take on the devil? 
It’s been so fun, and it’s funny because I don’t think… I’m not sure I was alive during the first possession storyline, so that was funny. I remember talking to Drake [Hogestyn] and he was telling me about the first one. Then he goes, “Were you even alive?”

I maybe remember hearing about it. I went back and watched those, and now I’m watching it happen again. Johnny getting to be involved is so fun. I just think it’s a really fun storyline. The contacts that they wear and the levitating  I hope that the fans are just having fun with it.

I feel like maybe when they first did the story, with Marlena, it was a little bit scarier, a little bit more – I want to say, what’s the word? A little bit more unheard of, a little bit more taboo, maybe. Now since it’s been done before, I feel like it’s not as  out there as the first time. Now people know the storyline, they have a bit of context with Marlena’s relationship with the devil. 

For me, it’s just been fun, and I hope that everyone who’s been watching it has enjoyed watching the devil get passed down generations.

TV SOURCE | Your character is the child of two incredibly iconic characters on DAYS (Lucas & Sami), tell us what it’s like getting to work alongside so many veterans in the soap industry. Even all of Allie’s grandparents are iconic!
I found out that I got the role on a Thursday and I was on set working on Monday. And I didn’t know who I was until the day before…  Maybe I started working on Tuesday.  But anyway, I went to set,  they told me who I was, and my storyline the day before I started. I think it was really top secret. 

My audition process was super quick and  I was also moving across the country that weekend. So… OK, I don’t have a ton of time to do research, and I didn’t even know who I should be researching because I didn’t really know who I was. So for me it  was kind of like, in the beginning,  as I met people, they would fill me in. 

So again, Ari and Greg Vaughn, I worked with them so much in the beginning and they were so sweet and they told me everything because they both know everyone. They’ve been there for a long time. So I got a great history rundown from them as quickly as they could.

Then actually later when Carson [Boatman] joined, I remember they kind of wrote up a little history sheet for both of us, which was helpful. But I  liked that as I met everybody, I asked them to explain our relationship, explain their character’s history because I felt like it was just an added bonus to get the character’s history from those specific actors who’ve played them for years. 

Then just developing those relationships from there. Luckily, I really worked with everybody in my first three months. So over that time, I got to slowly put together all of that information. But there’s always stuff that I learn like, I just learned how many weddings Sami has had. There’s always new things that I’m  picking up on as I just have more conversations with people.

TV SOURCE | Allie came onto DAYS as a bit of a wild child but has gone through a lot of life altering moments from sexual abuse to an unexpected pregnancy and so on. How would you describe your character’s journey and where would you like to see her end up? 
I mean, her journey has been obviously just – traumatic, incredibly taxing, and exhausting. I think that’s the biggest thing, it’s when I think about that sexual assault storyline and the exhaustion that it took for me to get there emotionally every day, to open that door to all of the emotions that come with something like that. It’s just an exhausting thing to experience something like that.

And having a child, going through pregnancy, carrying the child,  then the physical act of giving birth – Everything is just  exhausting and draining. What I want for Allie is for her to find peace. I want her to be at her little bakery, make scones, love her baby and have a partner. And maybe, I don’t know, pick up some hobbies?  I want her to have time to read, I want her to take Henry to the park, I just want her to be.  

I feel like she had that wild, college experience and then unfortunately, she had to grow up really, really fast because she went through these intense, very adult situations. Now she kind of has been forced to really become like a grown up. 

I just want her to be able to find a great mixture of peace and fun. But I think where she’s at is settled down. I think she wants that for herself, as well as just finding that peace and safety in her life because she didn’t have that for two years.

TV SOURCE | Do you think it’s important that the show hasn’t given a label to Allie’s sexual identity? Can we expect Allie to discuss her sexuality with Will when he returns? 
I love it because especially with my generation, with a lot of my friends, sexuality is not as rigid and it’s not as labeled as maybe it has been in the past. So for me, that was really honest and reflective of what we see in young adults. For people Allie’s age, there is less of a push to find a specific label that you fall into or anything like that. I really like that they’re exploring this idea of just really liking who you like and not really having any sort of say in who you’re going to fall for. I think it’s so important. I think it’s maybe something that hasn’t been super represented, and I think it also leaves a lot of space to follow Allie as she further unpacks her sexuality to maybe see if there is a label that she fits into. I think it’s just a really great starting point for her to go through all the different stages of figuring out who she is and what her sexuality is. 

I love that they’ve kind of started from this place of, “I really don’t know and I really am not even sure that I care.” It’s awesome. 

TV SOURCE | Do you hope that maybe we’ll get to see some scenes of Allie going to her big brother Will for advice? 
Yeah, definitely. I love Allie and Will’s relationship, I love Chandler [Massey], I love working with Chandler, so I think it’s always great when we get to have scenes. Especially if we could have some scenes incorporating that conversation, I think he’d be the perfect person for her to talk to about it. I definitely hope that she does go to him. I can’t wait. 

TV SOURCE | In your eyes, is Allie genuinely in love with Tripp or does she see him as the safe choice? It’s clear to us that Chanel is where her heart is.
So through my eyes, through Lindsay’s eyes,  I think Allie does love Tripp. I think that love is a very safe love. It comes from that feeling of being safe, so she does love him, but I think it’s the love that you could have with a friend, like a really good friend. 

My thing about Allie and Tripp is they’re really just… a trauma bond. They went through a really traumatic experience together. She told him she loved him after they saw his dead brother who assaulted her, come back from the dead. You know what I mean? 

Their relationship really came from a lot of trauma that they went through together, and I think when you go through something like that with someone, it’s really, really hard to let them go even if you know, that maybe you should. I think Allie does love him, but I think it’s because she’s been through so much with him, and he’s always there to protect her. It is kind of coming from a place of her really loving that security that Tripp gives her.

Yeah, poor Tripp.

TV SOURCE | Soaps haven’t seen very many same sex couples, let alone a couple with two women, let alone an interracial same-sex couple. Do you know that you’re making history in a lot of ways with Chanel / Allie?  What can we expect as these two grow closer and Allie’s defenses come down?
I think it’s so funny, too, because we shoot so far ahead. I remember the scenes where Allie goes and comforts Chanel after the engagement break-up, and we get that love scene between them. I remember shooting and feeling like, “Oh, this is really sick., This is really cool that we’re doing this.” But then you kind of forget about it as you just do everything else that we’re doing because we’re always, you know, there’s just always so many storylines happening. But yeah, I remember when that came out, there was a lot of love. I got a lot of love on Twitter, and that’s mainly where I interact with people. 

It felt really… I think I realized that this is a pretty special moment to be a part of, and I feel very happy that I got to be one of the two people to portray this moment. I’m really happy to see all of these people loving it. I’m sure there are people who didn’t love it, but I don’t care to see any of those. 

I was also getting some really funny edits and memes that day. When that episode aired, I was just in a great mood. I’m really glad that I got to be a part of this because it’s just not one of those things that you really realize in the moment because it’s another day at work.

But then when you see the response, it’s like, “Oh, yeah, no, this was a moment.”

TV SOURCE | What can you tease about what’s coming next?
Let me see. Let me try and think of a good hint that won’t get me in trouble.

Chanel and Allie are always – regardless of their relationship status, whether they’re friends, whether they’re more – they have an undeniable connection with each other and they deeply, deeply love each other. I think that’s at the foundation of their relationship in general, the reason that they’re best friends, it’s the reason that they sometimes… you know, when she’s upset. 

But there’s just a deep love between them that is hard to navigate, and I think it’s just at the core of their friendship, that deep, deep love. They really just love each other. 

TV SOURCE | The Challie fans are dying to know! How tall are you really? Chanel and Allie’s height difference was the talk of Twitter a few months back. 
Oh my gosh, I saw that and I was laughing because I was talking to Raven about it asking if Lindsay is just insanely tall or is it that Raven is just really short? It’s kind of a mix. 

But because of those scenes where we were at Paulina’s apartment and she was really upset, I was in four inch heels and Raven was barefoot. I literally felt like a giant leaning down to hug her because of it. My height is 5’6”  and I think Rave is 5’2” maybe. So we do have a bit of a height difference, but especially when I’m in heels and I’m 5’11” and then she’s still 5’2”. 

So, to end the questions and end the confusion, I’m 5’6” and she’s 5’2”. So we’re kind of neither. I’m not super tall and she’s not crazy short, but it was the heels-barefoot combo that really messed everyone up.

TV SOURCE | DAYS fans have loved you from your introduction to the show, what’s it been like being welcomed into the super fan-driven world of soaps? 
It’s been pretty interesting. DAYS is sort of the first thing that I’ve ever really done. So just in general, having people be a fan of you is a weird experience. It’s very strange. But I feel lucky because I have gotten a great response. As you said, from pretty much day one, I felt really welcomed. It’s fun to see. Sometimes I lurk. I don’t tend to lurk too much, but after a scene comes out or something happens, I want to see what people are saying. I mainly go on Twitter because people are really funny on there – amongst other things, but mainly, I just find the funny ones. 

I love how invested people get. People really will fight for their ship, especially when it comes to Challie versus… What are Allie and Tripp? Tallie. People will go really hard. Guys, it’s not some sort of war, but they’re really out here with strong opinions and feelings. 

I always think it’s so cool to see that and to know that you’re part of a story that’s igniting that much emotion in someone, they need to talk about it with other people. It’s been fun watching all of those interactions. Especially during the assault storyline, I was getting a lot of sweet messages and just like a lot of kind words, which meant a lot to me at that time. 

It’s been weird art times but it’s been mostly sweet. I mean, listen, I was a One Direction girl, I was a hardcore One Direction fan so I know how nasty it can get because when I was 14, I was a part of it. Whenever I see it, I’m just like, “Guys, go off!”

TV SOURCE | Carson Boatman told us that the vibe on set between the younger cast members definitely is akin to siblings and family. How do you all keep your amazing chemistry on screen alive? Do you hang out often? 
Yeah, I think again, we got lucky that we all have amazing chemistry, we just all get along so well. We do hang out quite a lot. I just hung out with Carson yesterday. When off set, we see each other, maybe weekly but we’re seeing each other every day too on set. 

Lucas Adams is big on hosting. Lucas will have us over at his place and we’ll play games, we’ll hang out, we’ll have dinner. We definitely hang out a good amount. It also helps that we’re just genuinely all friends. Raven and I will go out to dinner. We even went out to dinner one night to a really fancy, nice restaurant. I was like coming from work and was in jeans and maybe a blazer or something, then Raven was in heels because she went home and changed. It kind of felt like we’re playing our characters a bit at this romantic dinner. But we’re definitely just so lucky in the sense that we genuinely enjoy each other’s company. 

Carson and I have talked about it all the time but we’re really like siblings. We tease each other like siblings. We just know each other. We all really have that great friendly family kind of bond.

TV SOURCE | Outside of soaps, what kind of acting challenge would you like to tackle next? 
The biggest thing that I would love to do is an on-location movie or series. It must be so challenging to be away from everybody that you know and be in a foreign country or a different city, just working for months on end. It’s something that I would really, really love to do. I feel like that just adds a whole different level of getting into your character because you’re away from everybody that you know and you are meeting all these new people. It’s definitely something that I want to try

TV SOURCE | Do you have any words of advice for aspiring young actors like yourself? In other words, any words of advice for the Lindsay Arnolds who just started their acting journey? 
I would say don’t just put too much pressure on it and on yourself. I think with this industry, you just have to just focus on the acting, focus on how much you love the work, the art,the craft, because the rest of it is completely out of your control. 

The only thing that you have any control over is your own performance. If you put pressure on it and you don’t have fun with it, then there’s really no point and you’re going to drive yourself crazy, which I did for years. My biggest advice would just be to focus on your love for the arts and don’t focus on what you can’t control, like how people are going to receive it, or if you’re going to get the role or not. 

Because after you’ve done your audition, after you’ve sent in your work, there’s literally nothing you can do about it. Just do it, let it go, it’s not up to you anymore. It’s just a freeing way to think in general. 

Days of our Lives airs weekdays on NBC. Episodes are also available on Peacock.

The post ‘Days of our Lives’ Star Lindsay Arnold Discusses Playing a Legacy Character, Allie’s Journey and Romantic Entanglements appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews

Now, Nickelodeon has tapped Giroux to voice the titular character in their upcoming Paramount+ animated series, Big Nate. The 22-minute animated series is based off of the globally popular comic and book series and is set to follow Giroux’s Nate Wright as he navigates the ups and downs of middle school.

Join Johnathon and Coryon as they virtually sit down with Giroux learning more about his passion for creating, the feel good vibes behind the scenes at Big Nate and whether or not he stalks fan comments on Reddit!

And the answer to that is yes.

Johnathon: Big Nate is one of the most anticipated Nickelodeon Animation Studio projects, can you tell our listeners a little bit about the series and your role as Nate Wright? 

So Nate is this precocious, mischievous sixth grade kid with this ragtag group of misfit friends, and they get into tons of hijinks and trouble and misadventures. He’s a prankster, but he’s a good kid. He’s still got insecurities that he covers up with this sort of bravado that he has. 

Big Nate is based off of a very successful comic strip and series of books that have been going on since the 90s. So certainly as the title character, I have a responsibility I feel to do justice to the source material, but at the same time really invite in a whole new fan base of Big Nate fans. 

There’s a griminess to the show, and I think that’s reflected through our animation style. One of the things that I think is so cool about the show is it’s a 3D CGI show, but its animation style is quite different in that most 3D shows will light a scene big and bright, and everything’s very glossy. Our show lights a scene practically, so you might see a scene lit with sunlight streaming through a window or a lamp on the table. And I think that lends itself to sort of the griminess of P.S. 38. 

So I really love the animation style. I think the other thing that’s so interesting about our show is that Nate is an artist. He’s a doodler. In fact, I actually was an artist as a kid, so I see a lot of myself in Nate. But some of his doodles come to life in the show as 2D animation segments. So we’re actually mixing multiple forms of animation in the show, which is uncommon, and I think really helps to sort of bring Nate and his adventures to life.

Actually, piggybacking off of that, I think the thing that I love most about our show is that, I grew up watching Doug and Rugrats and Ren and Stimpy, all of the old school OG Nicktoons, and I think our show really harkens back to that style. The thing that I think really stands out to me about those old school Nick cartoons is that there was a real edge to the comedy. There was a bite to it. Adults and kids alike could enjoy it, and it wasn’t as frenetic as sort of modern animation. I think our show feels like, in all the best ways, an animated show from another era because it’s a 22 minute show. So it’s not like we’re beholden to these a little 11 minute segments that a lot of animated shows have to deal with these days, especially in the kids and family space. We have time to sort of pace the comedy to let the comedy breathe, to have an A story and a B story in an episode. Most importantly, our comedy really has an edge to it, which is very much inspired by the source material.

Coryon: The “Big Nate” franchise has been around since the early 90s, what familiarity to the series did you have prior to joining and did you do any research into the role prior to the start of production? 

So I’m 37, so I think I missed the initial Big Nate surge. You know, I talked to people who are 20/21 and they’re like, “Oh my God, Big Nate!”, they know it really well. So it’s actually been a lot of fun for me to sort of retroactively go back and research and understand. There’s a global fandom for these characters that is already in place, and certainly it adds to the level of responsibility.

I will also say my audition process spanned probably four or five months. So once I got that initial audition in – believe it or not – December 2019, then I started really going in and diving in and reading up on Big Nate, the universe of P.S. 38 and all of the wonderful ensemble. It is truly an ensemble of characters. 

You get to know the teachers on the show, the bullies, the older sister and the dad. And it’s just such a gifted ensemble of people, and the show uses all of those characters and relationships from the source material.

I’ll give you a house analogy. The source material is the foundation of the house, and it’s our responsibility now as the show to elevate that material and add floors and rooms to that house. And I think we’ve been able to do that. Our television episodes are all original stories, so you haven’t seen them in the comics or the book series, but it’s using all of the characters and the relationships and the locations that you know and love.

Lincoln Peirce, who’s the original creator, is deeply involved. So much so, in fact, that at the end of every episode during the credit sequence, Lincoln actually draws a hand-drawn comic strip based on the episode.

Johnathon: It’s been a comic strip, a book series and even a musical. Now finally, it has its own animated series which gives off a major 90s animated series vibe from what we’ve seen. What do you think has contributed to Big Nate’s longevity as a series? Is the feel of the show intentional?

I mean, ultimately, I think it sort of goes back to that edginess we talked about. I think kids can handle that. You know, I think sometimes when an animated series launches or when it’s being written, some projects might talk down to their audience. And Big Nate doesn’t do that, whether it’s the show, or the comic strip or the books. It respects its audience. So I think that has contributed to its longevity.

Also, I think there’s a little of all of us in Nate.  Nate sort of projects that he’s cool. He projects that his group of friends are cool. They’re not really cool, but it doesn’t matter. Nate is fearless. He’s confident, and I think it’s that sort of inner confidence, whether it’s faux confidence or not, is something to aspire to. 

Certainly in many aspects, this is a sixth grade do-over for me because when I was in sixth grade, you know, I struggled to make friends. I was a bit of an introvert. Nate, isn’t that at all? He’s confident, even when it’s undeserved confidence, right? Like he thinks he’s the coolest cat in the room but it’s not in a douchey way, right? He’s a good kid and we get to see those moments of insecurity as well.

In fact, one of my favorite scenes that we’ve done in the first season is in our pilot episode. Nate really is sort of questioning his inner confidence, his inner awesomeness, and he has this very sort of mysterious, mystical conversation through bathroom stalls with none other than a character played by Jack Black. First of all, it was a great, you know, bucket list career milestone for me to get to act with Jack. But also it was a great moment to sort of see that Nate’s a real kid with real insecurities and real problems as we all can relate to. So in a long winded answer to your question, I think the longevity is due to the fact that we can all sort of relate to the inner Nate, right, in all of us.

Johnathon: What does the recording process for Big Nate look like, are you recording traditionally in a studio? Or is this done over Zoom? 

You know, if we were not in a pandemic, we would be like all of my other Nickelodeon projects I’ve done. We’d be in a studio together. We’d be recording together as an ensemble. The thing that has made Big Nate so interesting is I booked this show the very first week of the pandemic in March 2020. So the thing that is so astounding in such a technical achievement is that no one from Big Nate has ever been in the same room making Big Nate, and you’ll never know it when you see the end result. So what happens is week after week, we have recorded remotely from our own home studios.  

Typically It’s just the actor and an engineer patched in through source connect or Zoom, talking to each other week after week. Then it’s cut together with all the performances after the fact. Our show is different. Our show records still as an ensemble, a remote ensemble, and so week after week we get on a big Zoom and sometimes there’s as many as 12 actors acting off of each other. And I think that has helped our show become so magical in our eyes because it allows the actors to play off of each other. It allows us to react to one another’s performances. 

And most importantly, I’m an improviser, so it allows us to riff with each other and find those little unscripted moments that could only be possible if we were actually acting off of each other. And I will say my real life writing and improv partner Arnie Pantoja, who plays Teddy Ortiz, was cast as Nate’s best friend. You know, so, so Arnie and I have a real life sort of comedy partnership. We pitch shows together, we’ve been showrunners of projects together, we write comedy scripts together, we improv together, and you will see that real life dynamic come to life as Nate and Teddy. And that could only be possible by us recording as an ensemble over Zoom, and we’re still able to improv with each other. So I feel very grateful for that. It’s really a testament to the hard work of a lot of engineers behind the scenes at Nickelodeon to figure out just how to record as a group when none of us can be in the same room.

Coryon: Nate as a character embodies the young, mischievous rascal in all of us! While he’s not necessarily the good guy, what makes him so likable and relatable? Will the show still touch on tougher topics like children of divorce, etc? 

I would say our show reflects Nickelodeon’s mantra, which is equal parts, hearts, smarts and farts. And I think you’ll see all of those three things reflected in our show in equal measure. We have literally made an 80s rock anthem about butt cheeks. So if that gives you any indication of how bonkers our show is, that should. 

I think that Nate is very much the protagonist and is ultimately the good guy. Yes, he can get into trouble. Yes, he can pull his friends into trouble, but if he screws up, he’ll be the first to admit it. He’s the first to apologize. And so I think that, you know, certainly that’s been, I guess, a level of focus for the writers room to take this prankster who on maybe on face value, it could be like, “Oh, that kid’s a jerk.” He’s not. He’s just fearless. And I think that confidence and that fearlessness is really allowed allows us to sort of relate to him. And then we can contrast it, of course, again, with those moments of insecurity where he’s like, “Oh man.”

A great example is our second episode, which is our Valentine’s Day of horror episode, where Nate is really just so focused on convincing the love of his life, Jenny, to be his Valentine’s date. And of course, the whole episode is a zombie apocalypse allegory because he wins a pizza party for the school and everybody gets food poisoning and vomits all over each other. 

So. Wow. So we completely undercut Nate’s romance with just lots and lots of vomit. It’s like it’s really astounding the level of vomit you will see in the second episode of our show. But you get to see him insecure and trying to win over his love despite the copious amounts of puke.

Johnathon: Your company Small Red Cape has been creating a lot of viral content, with you at the helm as directing. What drew you to working behind the camera? 

That’s a great question. Early on in my career, I’m a short guy. I’m 5’2”, I found myself playing quite a lot of Christmas elf roles, and at a certain point, you want to do more with your career than just playing an elf. So I’ve always been sort of creative, right? I think early on I thought, “Gosh, you know, I can’t do anything outside of acting on television because people will think that will complicate my brand in some way. Or, you know, it would invalidate my acting efforts.”

Now it’s the complete opposite. How many slashes can I add to my business card is really the way forward. I think the more avenues we can build for ourselves as entertainers in the entertainment industry, the more opportunities we have to tell stories and make people laugh. 

So, you know, early on in the days of YouTube, I was running a couple of successful YouTube channels like FML, Fred and Fail Blog, and that was allowing me to build an early audience of people online. And I sort of was able to sort of cut my teeth as a director then and understand what it was like working with clients, brands, ad agencies and things like that. I would say a real turning point was I always wanted to start making my own passion projects and I always wanted to make a braggadocious Busta Rhymes=style music video about being short. 

So I teamed up with a hip-hop artist, my buddy Jensen Reed, and we made a viral music video called Little Dude Anthem, which is basically me rapping as an elf and a Smurf for three minutes. It did very well. We had people from American Idol, and So You Think You Can Dance in it and realized, like, “Hey, I’m really starting to evolve my style as a director, whether I’m on camera in this stuff, I’m directing or not.” 

So Jensen and I got together and we said, “OK, well, what?” What else do we really like that we want to focus on as a passion project? And we said 90s nostalgia. So we worked for two years on a project called Back to the 90s, and it went bonkers. It was a big, celebratory music video about everything 90s pop culture, 90s music. We got 100 million views. We charted at number 11 on Billboard. We joined the Backstreet Boys in Las Vegas. It was nuts. 

It opened up because it was a passion project. It opened up so many quote-unquote professional opportunities for me thereafter, so I really started to establish myself as a more traditional director, directing commercials and music videos and TV pilots. And it’s really, you know, spawned into a successful boutique production company. And now I think back to the early days where I was reticent to say I did anything outside of acting, now as a director, as a producer, as a writer, as a voice actor, as a television actor, I just like to tell people I make cool stuff with my friends. 

And beyond the camera that can be behind the camera, that can be in front of a microphone, but at the end of the day, I just want to make people laugh.

Coryon: Congratulations on over 4.4 MILLION followers on TikTok, what do you like so much about the platform? 

TikTok has really been an interesting journey over the last two years. It really has defined the pandemic for me. You know, I think back to the late 90s when I was running around high school trying to make little comedy sketches with my friends on my miniDV camera and then figuring out how to convert it to a VHS tape. It was hard to make stuff back then, or at least harder. Fast forward, I have a production company. I have a team of people I work with. You know, I direct commercials and music videos.

So prior to the TikTok, I was used to being on set with 200 people, a jib crane, a Steadicam and all this high tech stuff. Then the pandemic happened, and all I had was an iPhone, a living room and whatever I had around me to make stuff with. So it really sort of brought me back to my kind of 90s filmmaker roots, I guess, of just hey, let’s experiment and make fun stuff. 

I had the benefit of having already a pretty youthful audience because of my Nickelodeon roles. I’ve played The Toddler on Henry Danger and Danger Force for 10 years on Nick. So I was able to sort of leverage that and start building up an audience and just posting consistently. In the early days of the pandemic, TikTok really was this fun, creative sandbox to just experiment with, try stuff out and connect directly with a fan base.

Now it’s still certainly that for me, but it’s also a great promo machine for the show. I’m able to directly communicate with fans to show them clips, to give them a little peeks behind the scenes of what we’re working on. The cast is very involved. I don’t think you’ll ever find a more involved cast than we have in terms of the want and the interest in promoting and connecting with our fan base. I love poking around the Subreddit and, you know, talking to the trolls, talking to the fans and taking their feedback because that winds up in the show.

So TikTok is a great way to directly connect with a fan base. It’s a great way to stay creative. I post two times a day. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also leading to other opportunities in my career. I get directing jobs now because I have a TikTok audience. I’m pitching shows because of a TikTok audience. So, I think it’s a really exciting platform and one that continues to evolve and one that has really become integral to so many of the things that I do in entertainment now.

Coryon: #CartoonVoiceBattle is epic! As a Reno 911 fan, I loved the Carlos Alrazaqui battle the most. Is the voice acting community very tight knit? What’s it like being able to create with these other actors outside of actual work?

Cartoon Voice Battle is a series of TikToks that I’ve created and that I’m generating new episodes of as we speak. Initially, in the early days of TikTok and in the early days of quarantine, I recognized that I was one of the, I guess, few voice actors on the platform in the early days that had an audience. I remember there was a phenomenon I encountered early on at my voiceover agency. Over a decade ago, I remember sitting in the lobby and chatting with somebody and I’m like, “Oh my God, I just realized I’m talking to EG Daily, who’s the voice of Tommy Pickles on Rugrats?” Or, “Oh my god, I’m talking to Billy West. I just thought he was this friendly guy in the lobby.” I didn’t realize he’s the voice of Doug. 

So it’s been really fun and certainly the fans enjoy getting to see and put a face to the name of a lot of the animated characters that they know and love, but might not know who the actor is behind it. One of my goals, actually for the promotion of Big Nate, is to really connect the faces of the actors to the characters that they’re playing, because I think that’s something that gets lost in animation these days. I think that it’s important to value the actor behind the role just as much as the character itself. And so that’s something we’re trying to do with a lot of lip sync content on TikTok and certainly through the Cartoon Voice Battles.

Coryon: The Henry Danger fandom is still going strong and loving your past character, The Toddler. What’s it like still getting to revisit that character? How’s it like being welcomed into the Big Nate fandom and seeing it grow? 

It’s crazy because I did the Henry Danger pilot almost 10 years ago, and to think that I have now played The Toddler, the main villain on the show for the past near decade on three different Nickelodeon series:  Henry Danger, The Adventures of Kid Danger was our animated spinoff and now our live action spinoff, Danger Force. It’s just a real treat. 

You know, being an adult on a kid’s show is interesting because all the other adults are these really gifted, funny, improvisational comedians and character actors. So anytime we get to do episodes together and interact, it’s a real fraternity of comedy people, and it’s a blast. At this point, it’s a family. Some of my dearest friends in the world are some of the cast and crew of Henry Danger. Any kind of longevity in entertainment is amazing but to say I’ve played the same character now for almost a decade on TV is pretty nuts, and it’s found some real, I guess, a second life to it. 

With the premiere of Danger Force and also with the fandom on TikTok, many of those early twentysomethings or around that age grew up watching Henry Danger, so there’s a nostalgia factor to the character. And then there’s younger fans who currently watch Danger Force, where The Toddler is a very active character for them in their pop culture lexicon. So it’s a character that has really spanned multiple generations of Nickelodeon fans and one that has certainly established a very strong relationship with Nickelodeon in general, which has certainly helped on the animation side as well. I think I’m one of the few actors that has a pretty prolific on camera experience at the network while also starring on the animation side. Both of those paths have been really satisfying to hone in on and also, The Toddler’s just fun. He’s an evil man-baby. He’s a gangster. I mean, it’s a complete blast. So anytime we’re on set, it’s a lot of fun.

Johnathon: Now that you’re more cemented as a member of the Nickelodeon family, are you looking forward to getting slimed this year at the Kids’ Choice Awards when you take home the orange blimp?

Well, look, I’ve been to the Kids’’ Choice Awards many times, but I have not been slimed at the Kids’’ Choice Awards yet. . I am going to put that out there with you that hopefully, we are back in person soon for events like that because I will very eagerly commit to being slimed,, for sure.

The post Interview With ‘Big Nate’ Star Ben Giroux appeared first on TV Source Magazine. TV Source Magazine - TV News, Spoilers, Recaps, Interviews